December 30, 2016

Best Nine 2016

I did my “best nine” on Instagram last year and had fun seeing which were the nine most popular posts again this year. I decided to write a quick blog post with links to original posts (if I made them). I used this site to find mine; it was quick and easy.

From top left to right:

The Great Canadian Craftsy Bag Tour

I made this Hanging Cosmetics Organizer from the Craftsy Class Sew Sturdy Travel Organizers. Read more about the class and my review here.

Jackie McFee Swoon Dallas

I haven’t blogged this yet, but I made a Swoon Dallas for Jackie McFee for her new fabric line to display at Quilt Market a couple months back. The new collection is called My Gray or the Highway, and it will be available this summer. I’ll post more about it around its release date.

Sweet Talk

I made this bag from the Sweet Talk pattern from Sara Lawson’s second book. You can read all about it, including the amazing glitter vinyl I used, in this post!

Sakuro Clutch from One Thimble

I tried out a pattern from the latest issue of One Thimble: the Sakuro Clutch. I also used cork for the first time. Check out this post for all the details.

Fabric Weaving

I think this is the favourite thing I learned this year. I can’t wait to do more in 2017. I used a bit of this weave as a feature in the Sakuro clutch, but you’ll find out soon what I used the rest in. Check out my post explaining the process here.

Heidi Foldover Clutch

I used some of my precious Tula Pink Saltwater collection for this free Swoon pattern. I didn’t blog this one, but you can get the free PDF here.

Cat Lady 241 Tote

I didn’t blog this one either! I made a Noodlehead 241 Tote for a cat-loving friend. I used Cat Lady from Sarah Watts for both exterior and lining of the bag. This pattern never disappoints!

1k giveaway

I celebrated 1000 followers on Instagram with a giveaway. If you aren’t on Instagram, check it out for oodles of inspiration.

#undertheseaswap

I made a Maker’s Tote for an Instagram swap, and before I could share the tote on Instagram, I showed a picture of an extra I included in the swap: a cup cozy with some out of print Sarah Jane fabric I really love. you can read more about the tote here, and download a copy of the free PDF pattern for the cup cozy here.

There you have it! I hope next year is even more exciting. Thanks for making it a great one! Read my previous post to see what I have planned for 2017.

December 29, 2016

What’s Coming Up in 2017

I started this blog 2 years ago and I’ve really enjoyed interacting with so many of you in the sewing community, and learning loads of new things. One thing I love about this blog is that it pushes me to keep trying something different. This year, I’m looking forward to quite a few things, and I’m sure there will be some surprises as well. Here’s what I have planned:

Sew Sweetness Swap

I love a good swap! I’ve got one planned and even have a discount available, but you’ll have to wait until 2017 for all the details.

Bag of the Month Club

Even when I don’t get around to sewing all the bags, this club is always fun! It’s always exciting awaiting each month’s pattern reveal. This year, there is a new designer: Celine from Blue Calla will be first up. You have a couple more days to sign up for the early bird discount. Check out the website for more details.

Video Tutorials

I have a couple video tutorials in the works for you, but they’re going to be a bit different. I’m not going to spoil the surprise for you though, you’ll have to wait and see!

Bra Making

I won a bra making class and I bought a couple kits to get started, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m making it my goal this year to make one. I’d also like to try out one of Beverly Johnson’s Craftsy classes.

Quilting

This year I’d really love to make a quilt. I have some really great Craftsy classes, like this Elizabeth Hartman one, that goes great with her Fancy Forest Quilt pattern, which I also have.

Fancy Forest Quilt Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman from Connecting Threads

I picked up some quilting books so I think I’ll have to make a few quilts, or at least some decorative pillows for special quilt blocks.

Patchwork City book by Elizabeth Hartman from Connecting Threads

The Half-Square Triangle book by Jeni Baker from Connecting Threads

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird from Connecting Threads

Organized Sewing Space

Ok, this one is more of a goal, rather than something I have planned. I have a sewing room with a closet full of fabric, but in the last couple of months, my organized stash has been rather unruly. Before I get started on any big project, I really need to buckle down and get my space less cluttered.

Upping my Photography Game

This one is another goal. I recently bought a new camera and I know I need to improve my pictures, so that I can bring even better tutorials to the blog. It also helps when you make an awesome bag and can actually take a decent picture of it. My friend Natalie of Hungry Hippie Sews wrote a really helpful blog post about taking better pictures, so I’m using that as my guide.

Unknown

Surprises and unknown turns. Creativity gives us freedom to explore new avenues and accept new opportunities. Is there something you’re hoping to see here? What are you looking forward to in 2017?

December 19, 2016

Paint-a-Pet

Apparently paint and pets do mix. The last time my BFF and I tried to mix them, things went a little awry. We did our best to turn her little fluffy pooch, Watson, into a panda with some black food dye. (Blame Kung-Fu Panda.)

Anyway, I saw this book on the Leisure Arts website a while back and put it on my wish list. Recently Leisure Arts offered any book they publish to their affiliates, if said affiliates would do a review. (They didn’t ask for a positive review, mind you. They asked for a review and I take that as “bad is just as good as good.”)

I asked them for Paint-A-Pet, a paint by numbers art book by Linda Gillum. The book arrived and I sat there looking at it and wondering what manner of evil made me pick that — I can’t paint. I’ve tried! And the numbers won’t help, because … well, just because I suck at painting.

Enter the aforementioned BFF, Iris. She’s practising her art, and perfecting various techniques. I already think she’s perfectly imperfect and if I could put up her artwork everywhere I go, I would be so happy. But she won’t let me.

Well, she thought this book was perfect for her to work on her animals in watercolour. And she agreed to review the book for me. Here she is, folks — Iris King!

Paint-A-Pet by Linda Gillum

Published by: Leisure Arts

The Paint-A-Pet book is a fun and very easy to use book of animal designs!
The formatting, from book cover, to table of contents to the individual page designs, are super clear and visually pleasing to the eye.
There is a great variety of animals and several levels of difficulty created from the number of colours that go into one design. This makes it so that a person of any artistic level can have fun with these designs!
The instructions on how to execute each design are super simple and easy to follow.

Tracing

I tried using a makeshift light table to trace the template on to water colour paper without having to use transfer paper, however the lines of the page behind made it a little hard to do. A work around could simply be photocopying it and then using the light table. In any case, I was still able to trace most of it and eyeball the rest.

All traced! I did it with a water-colour pencil so that it would just blend in with my water colours in the next step.

Painting

I then used watercolours and followed the “paint-by-numbers” guide, which was great! I had the freedom to use whatever colour I wanted but didn’t have to think about where they needed to go.

Then I finished it off with a black ink brush pen to create my own look.

Lastly, I was inspired by the book to create my own background so I added blue & purple watercolour splatters. and some brush lettering!

I really enjoyed using this book and can’t wait to get even more creative with my next piece! And I highly recommend it to all the pet-lover-artists out there!

Iris

Gifts and products for your home with original artwork by Iris can be found at https://society6.com/irisking.

The book, published by Leisure Arts, is here.

Guess who gets to keep that book and have fun with watercolours. Yeah, not me. And in case you were wondering what happened to Watson the Pink Panda Pooch, the little guy had to live like this for several weeks. Let’s just say it was all “interesting”.

Pink Panda. Don’t judge, man! He loved it.

Cheers!

PS. No animals were harmed or traumatized in the Pink Panda episode. He thought he was having a day at the spaw.

PPS. You can find more or Iris King’s art at Society 6

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Tags: animals, drawing, painting, Pink Panda

December 18, 2016

Go Pho Ga Yourself!

Can you cook? Wait! better question: are you an adventurous cook?

I’m pretty damned good in the kitchen, even if I have to say it myself. I love to play with my food (and I don’t mean like the cafeteria food fights in high school.) To be honest, one of the reasons I loved my ex was that he was willing to eat any kind of experiment I put in front of him. Now it’s your turn to try something new with me.

My fellow blogger and friend, Michelle, has already posted about this cooking adventure here, and Naomi from Barely Beige will post next weekend. But guess what! All three posts are teasers for what we have coming up in January. This is your invitation to join our journey to Vietnam — virtually.

Join us for What??

We’re cooking our way through the Craftsy course Vietnamese Classics: Pho, Noodles & Beyond with Andrea Nguyen. Each of us is making a different dish and we’d love it if you cooked along with us. If you already have the class, leave comments below to let me know how you’re getting on and what you think of it. In case you don’t have it yet and would still like to cook up some nomnoms with us, you can grab your pho class here for 50% off with this coupon code: c3c57576-6579-46df-b07b-f

Preparing for a night of pho-ing

While I was in the Asian market with my BFF shopping for ingredients and unwittingly assaulting other customers with sweet potatoes, I did pick up one of the nearly-essential tools for a good pho experience. It’s a vertical noodle strainer that is exactly like this one on Amazon. One other almost-critical tool is a “scum skimmer” that they didn’t have in-store, so I ordered one for next to nothing from eBay. It will get here before mid January, just in time for me to do this again. Yes, you need a scum skimmer in your pho-ing life, believe me!

Grilling ginger and onion in the toaster oven

Will you please join us and leave comments for Michelle, Naomi and me letting us know how your pho-ing is going?

And so we leave you to your holidays with visions of Vietnamese pho dancing in your head. Keep warm and raise a glass of something. Cheers!

PS. My first attempt was so good, we ate the whole thing before I remembered to take a picture. I guess I’ll have to do this again. Poor me! 🙂

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Tags: cooking, noodles, pho, soup, Vietnam

December 17, 2016

Last Minute Gifts

Every Christmas I promise myself not to wait until the last minute to make Christmas gifts, yet every year, I still find myself in a panic as the days countdown and my time fades away. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve though, and thought I’d share them with you, in case you find yourself in the same predicament.

General Quick Tips

In addition to having quick projects, I’ve learned a few ways to help speed up my process.

Sort projects by thread colour: I find doing small batches with the same thread colour helps, and gray usually blends in pretty nicely with everything.
Cut interfacing first and fuse to fabric, then cut the fabric out; this eliminates tracing the pattern onto the fabric.
Log out of social media! This is hard for a lot of us, but it sure increases productivity.
If you have a second sewing machine, pull it out and put on a zipper foot or use a second thread colour; whichever might make it easier if you find yourself having to switch back and forth.

Quick Projects

Sew Sweetness Kismet Trinket Boxes

Photo from Sew Sweetness

This latest pattern set from Sew Sweetness is also a great value, at only $5 and offers 6 different boxes, plus it’s great for fat quarters. These are quick and would make a great gift, especially filled with goodies.

Happy Okapi Cup Cozy

I may be a little biased here, but my free cup cozy pattern is ideal for quick gifts, and it works for men too! Pair it with a reusable cup, tuck in a gift card to your favourite coffee shop, and voila!

Key Fobs

These are perfect scrap busters and work really well when you want to give a small gift to everyone in a big group. I wrote a free tutorial if you need some help putting them together.

1-hour Dopp Kit

I whipped up these fat-quarter friendly bags last year and they are true to their name. Check out the free tutorial here.

Pillow Case

Kids love having a special pillowcase and they’re so quick and easy. I wrote a tutorial to follow if you need some tips to get started.

Noodlehead Divided Basket

There aren’t too many patterns I make many of (there are just so many out there and I want to try them all!) but the Noodlehead Divided Basket is an exception. I’ve made so many of these baskets, I’ve lost count. It’s such a versatile pattern and makes a useful gift for so many people. It comes together so quickly too, and if you use webbing for the handles, then it’s even quicker.

Swoon Dakota Tablet Clutch

Here’s another quick free pattern that works for a variety of people. This Swoon Dakota Tablet Clutch sews up in a jiffy!

I hope this gives you a few ideas and helps you get those last gifts done before the turkey comes out of the oven. Cheers!

December 7, 2016

Transfer Embellish Stitch

Greetings, Earthlings,

We have taken your leader. Fear not. We do not intend to destroy your fabric stash, sergers or craft rooms; we only … What do you mean she’s not your leader? … Ok, we’ll do a few tests and toss her back. In the meantime, enjoy…

Jen Fox and Sarah Case here to talk about one of our favorite projects from our new book “Transfer Embellish Stitch: 16 Textile Projects for the Modern Maker“. We are so excited to share this project from the book, which just came out in October with C&T Publishing / Stash Books.

Our book is based on the idea of taking a motif and transferring it onto fabric using a variety of methods (freezer paper stencils, plastic stencils, fusible web, and embroidery transfer paper) and then embellishing the project with a technique such as fabric paint, deColourant, embroidery, appliqué, and reverse appliqué. We provide motifs on a full sized pull out in the back of the book, and we encourage thinking outside the box and mixing and matching the techniques to create a project that is unique to you!

A display of book projects at a local fabric and quilting shop.

Transfer Embellish Stitch has three different categories of projects: Wear, Live, and Give. The storage baskets are in the Give category — they would make such a great gift, either on their own or to hold other gift items as a gift basket. The baskets are so versatile and can be used to corral bath items, small toys, crafts, and more! Think toy cars, balls of yarn, fabric precuts, crafts in progress, socks, hand towels… the list goes on.

The Orbit Storage Basket project from the book Transfer Embellish Stitch.

In the book, we use the “orbit” motif for our baskets. You can use any one of the motifs from the book, or make your own. The orbit motif is repetitive, and can easily be modified to wrap all the way around the basket. Or, choose another motif from the book, and feel free to rearrange elements from the motifs to create your own design, or just use parts and pieces from a motif.

A student makes her own winter themed motif. The top shows her cutting the design out of freezer paper, below is the painted canvas fabric.

The project shows how to make a stencil out of freezer paper. If you haven’t tried this before, it’s an inexpensive and easy way to make a stencil. You trace your design onto the dull paper side of the freezer paper, cut out the pieces to make a stencil, and then iron with the plastic shiny side down on your fabric. The freezer paper sticks to the fabric so that when you paint your motif, the edges stay crisp and clean.

We love the idea of making multiples of the basket and color coding them for different storage needs. You can even get creative with the motifs and make your own custom stencils following the instructions in the book.

Recently, we hosted a class and each person made their own basket. We loved seeing how some people used the motifs we provide in the book exactly, some modified or only used portions of the motifs, and some created their own motifs.

How would you use this storage basket? What motif would you choose, or would you make your own?

Thank you for joining us today to learn about this project from our new book, Transfer Embellish Stitch! You can learn more about us by following the links below.

Instagram:
@case_and_fox @jenfoxstudios @sarahcasedesign

Websites:
www.jenfoxstudios.com
www.sarahcasedesign.com

Hey! what day is it? And why am I feeling so delightfully woozy? … alright, whoever took my amygdala, give it back right now!

PS. Thank you Sara and Jen for this introduction to your book. Love it!

PPS. I’ll be back with my unembellished story of embellishing.

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Tags: applique, book, customize, embellishment, embroidery, fabric paint, fabric transfer, freezer paper, stencil

December 3, 2016

Prairie Girl – Bag of the Month Club

I’ve been working on secret sewing lately and it’s been so hard to keep them all quiet. I’m bursting at the seams to share these awesome patterns and thrilled I can finally show you this one. It’s the Prairie Girl bag, by Janelle from Emmaline Bags, for the December pattern in the Bag of the Month Club.

This bag has it all! The front zippered pocket has card slots, and even a pen loop! The main section is two separate zippered compartments and the strap is adjustable so you can wear it on the shoulder, or cross-body. Lining up the butterflies from the pocket to the main bag was an experiment that worked, thankfully!

I’m not a prairie girl myself, having lived on the west coast my whole life, but I wanted the fabric for this test to match the name. I envisioned butterflies in sunny fields and pretty foliage when I did this fabric pull, and I think they’re so pretty together. These are prints from two Lizzy House collections: Natural History and The Lovely Hunt.

A great thing about this bag is that it’s low on hardware. It really only needs an adjustable slide and 2 rings. I even managed to upcycle my hardware from a thrift store bag. You can also use rivets to attach the straps, but if rivets make you nervous, you can just stitch them on instead.

If you want to read more about the Bag of the Month Club, you can check out the Emmaline Blog. There’s also a big announcement from Janelle in her post, you won’t want to miss it.

Update: The Prairie Girl is now available individually from Emmaline Bags, click here to purchase.